Wales’s leading new university will sponsor the 250-seat Weston Studio over the next 12 months and will enjoy benefits such as professional training projects for students, a showcase stage, artist talks and privileged access to performances for students and staff. This project has been further supported by Arts & Business Cymru as part of their ‘New Partners’ investment scheme.The sponsorship package announcement coincides with the Weston Studio’s new spring season, which offers a diverse range of comedy, dance, drama and music concerts, providing an impressive array of performances and ideally complementing UWIC’s innovative and creative courses. Wales Millennium Centre’s Theatre Programmer Louise Miles-Crust says, “The focus of the Weston Studio programme is on developing new and younger audiences for WMC and providing a performance platform to enable non-traditional art forms to develop. This partnership with UWIC and Arts & Business Cymru is an ideal unification. We will be providing students with valuable and practical experience in a world class venue for the performing arts.” Professor Antony Chapman, UWIC’s Vice-Chancellor, said: “We are delighted to form this partnership with Wales Millennium Centre, which will offer excellent opportunities for our students in learning and experiencing how a world-class arts venue operates.” The partnership will complement UWIC’s vocational and creative higher education courses, which includes Secondary Drama (leading to Qualified Teacher Status), Broadcast Media and Multimedia Design. One of the key groups to benefit from the new partnership will be UWIC’s trainee teachers studying on the BA (Hons) Secondary Drama. The second year Cardiff School of Education students take part in an annual Theatre in Education (TiE) project. They perform GCSE English texts for a number of UWIC Partnership Schools and run interactive drama workshops after the performances, which explore the play further. It is planned that next year’s TiE performances and workshops will take place at the Weston Studio. Nicola Heywood Thomas from Arts & Business Cymru says “We’re delighted to support this innovative partnership and to promote the best productions at the Weston Studio to young people and develop their interest in the arts at a crucial age.” The Weston Studio complements the larger-scale productions on the main stage, the Donald Gordon Theatre. The size and technical facilities of the Studio allows WMC to showcase more experimental and niche works, enabling WMC to work with both established innovative performance groups and new talent emerging both inside Wales and across the world. |
| Wales Millennium Centre web site: www.redshifttheatreco.co.uk/ |
| Esther Eckley e-mail: esther.eckley@wmc.org.uk |
Monday, March 13, 2006 |
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